Pain Before the Fall?
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 : By Eric Farr
In this past Sunday’s God Questions series, we tackled the question: If God loves the world so much then why is there so much pain in this world? In talking about that, we mentioned that pain was introduced with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Astute listeners have pointed out that in Genesis 3:16, God gives Eve (and all women after her) the bad news that He would increase her pain in childbirth. This implies that there was at least some pain in childbirth before the fall.
This is correct. When we said that pain came after the fall, we meant pain in the sense of pain, suffering, and grief. The central nervous system was designed by God to to help us react to our environment. If Adam had stubbed his toe on a rock in the garden before the first sin, I believe he would have felt pain, just as he would have after the fall.
Thanks to all of you who were listening and asked about that! 
About The Author
Eric is privileged to be an elder at Grace Fellowship, a husband to an amazing woman (Donna), and daddy to two cool kids (Austin and Savannah). If he had free free time, Eric would probably go fishing, boating, or shoot some amateur photography.
More entries by Eric Farr
2 Comments
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Since Eve is already in a fallen state when God speaks to her in Genesis 3:16, I would question whether it is valid to infer that that the “increase” is an increase with respect to pre-Fall conditions…
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Also makes me wonder why God put Adam in a deep sleep to remove a rib? Why didn’t He just say, “Hey Adam, hold still!”
Jason Parry : April 4th, 2008 at 1:07 pm